Neil Armstrong at the 30th anniversary of Apollo 11 at the Newseum, Arlington, Virginia, 1999.

Neil Armstrong was a powerful voice for pushing back the frontiers of flight. His death on Saturday, August 25, 2012, is a sad occasion for all of us. There have been many tributes to him over the course of the last couple of days so I thought it appropriate to capture a few of them in this blog post, including my own remembrance.

2 Responses to Godspeed, Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)

Perhaps we would be better in saying that Neil Armstrong was a powerful presence, rather than a powerful voice, for pushing back the frontiers of flight. He was notably hesitant about using his voice to influence policy, but even without using it he represented, as an icon, our drive, skill, and potential. In this way, perhaps the most powerful legacy that he left us with was what an icon should look like.

I get your point, and thanks for this insight, but I think that regardless of whether or not it was public Armstrong had a powerful voice. We saw it in the many commissions on which he served, in his quiet but thoughtful discussions with many leaders over a long period, and in his reflective perspectives offered to those in seats of power in various settings. I personally saw it in the Centennial of Flight Commission, and have investigated it in the context of the Challenger accident and the work of the Rogers Commission.